The Laughter of Mothers

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'Thank you, O golden mother, / For giving me a life, ' says Paul Durcan in this brilliant new collection, a poignant tribute to 'the first woman I ever knew'. Sheila MacBride came from a political family -aher uncle John MacBride was executed in 1916 for his part in the Easter Uprising -abut when Sheila married into the 'black, red-roaring, fighting Durcans of Mayo' she was obliged to give up a promising legal career. These poems commemorate his mother as Paul Durcan remembers her -aplaying golf, reading Tolstoy, and initiating him in the magic of the cinema. He recalls her compassion and loyalty when he was committed to a mental hospital in adolescence and how she endured the ordeal of her old age. Durcan also muses upon the beauty of Greek women and questions our need for newspapers and the new religion of golf. He is beguiled by a beggar woman, enraged by a young man picking his nose on the Dublin-Sligo commuter train, and gets into difficulty at the security gate of Dublin airport.Death on Strand Road Passers-by stop to try and help the dying man As he lies
flat on his back in the yellow box Of the On the Run filling ... He is stretched out
beside his silver Ford Focus 5 -door Estate In which ninety seconds ago he had
been cruising along Strand ... to resuscitate the dying man: Three American
policemen on holiday in Ireland Jumping out of a hired Toyota Space Wagon,
Giving himanbsp;...

Title

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The Laughter of Mothers

Author

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Paul Durcan

Publisher

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Random House Uk Limited - 2007

ISBN-13

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